Blog 117: Like Father, Like Son

 

By Vernon M. Herron

Photography by William Youngblood

     It is said that “a picture is worth a thousand words.” If that be true, we give you both today, in the hope that positive news is better than a negative reality. Five boys give a positive view of their dads. 

     This is the third of a series on father/son relationships. It speaks volumes of the need for good parenting. This blog accentuates the positives and eliminates the negatives.

    “Heroic…Impressive…I love my dad, Anthony McGhee, because he is more than my father but my best friend. He is constantly there for me with uplifting words, laughs, and tough love. I want to be just like him as a hard working, courageous man in all endeavors.”

   Travis

     “I love my dad Tommy. I want to be just like him because he is a strong man. My dad takes care of the family and makes sure that we are safe. He is a fun person to be around and is always there when you need him. 

     “My dad is a cool guy and I am sure he knows that. Whenever we go out together, it makes me feel good because I have a father who wants to hang out with me and to be there for me. It is a good feeling that I want to pass on to my children. This is why I love my father.” 

Emmitt

     “I am blessed to have J. B. Gammon as my beloved father. We are friends. We have a good life together. He guides me as one traveling toward “the unknown.”

     “He teaches me the difference between truth and error; he provides well for me; and we worship, plan and play together. I love my dad.”

Joshua

My Father, My Mentor
      “My dad fulfilled his wishes and my dreams.  He is everything I could ask for in a father.
      “When I was a little boy in elementary school, the highlight of my day was when my father would take to me to school, stand in the hallway and watch me go into my classroom.   One day the principal walked out of her office and saw my father standing there and said 'Mr. Mikell, I can see Brandon is the apple of your eye.'    
      “I’ve always been able to depend on my dad.  If he said he was going to do something or be somewhere, he ALWAYS kept his word.   That was a great lesson I learned from him, to always be a man of my word. 
     “My dad taught me many things -  the value of having good character, being honorable, being kind and especially being respectful to ALL people/

     “My dad, Kelvin Mikell, is not only my father, but my mentor.
I am thankful to my dad for showing me the path to a godly life and for cultivating in me a desire to know my Heavenly Father.  My life and my relationship with God are proof of the power of a father's love.”

A Father's Love...

A father's love is unconditional.
It's stronger than anything man can make, a bond that's unbreakable.
A father's love is timeless, it endures forever. He needs not to speak it, his actions are filled with the words my heart can clearly hear.
A father's love is more valuable than money or bank can hold, it's priceless and could never be sold.
His eyes are my eyes. His heartbeat is my heartbeat. He is me and I am him. I am my father's love.

Brandon

      What more needs to be said?

Blog 116: My Beloved Father Whom I Know

By Joshua Blair Gammon

     While blog 115 spoke of a father “I Never Knew,” because of death, I write this blog 116 to describe my beloved father whom I know quite well. Our relationship, his guidance, leadership, teachings, examples, longevity and love affirm that “I am blessed” to have J. B. Gammon as my beloved father. We are friends. We have a good life together. He guides me as one traveling toward “the unknown;” he teaches me the difference between truth and error; he provides well for me; and we worship, plan and play together.

     This has been a life’s long journey. I am 16 years old, born in Tennessee; am a Junior at Mallard Creek High School where I’ve been a part of the Student Government since my sophomore year and the Chorus since my freshman year. Since my father teaches that “one is becoming everyday what one will be,” I always try to help others.

     I’m a life scouter in the Boy Scouts movement, going up for my Eagle Scout rank. For my Eagle Scout project, I provided books for CMS’s title I elementary schools. I did a book drive at my church, The Friendship Missionary Baptist Church where we collected over 2,000 books! I’ve been in Boy Scouts for over 9 years and I’ve collected over 25 merit badges.

     My father has always told me that I could be anything I wanted to be if I work hard and have faith in God. He also taught me the meaning of leadership and being responsible for my own action.

     By the way, if any beau with an alternative motive wants to meet me, you must take your turn in line, because I plan on going to college and majoring in Journalism. After I graduate, I want to work for The Charlotte Observer or the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and work myself up to the position Editor-in-Chief.

     When Josiah Gilbert Holland prayed and wrote, “God Give Us Men,” God answered that prayer through my beloved dad whom I love, respect and cherish.

God Give Us Men

God give us men. The time demands strong minds,

Great hearts, true faith, and willing hands;

Men whom the lust of office does not kill;

Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;

Men who possess opinions and a will;

Men who have honor; men who will not lie;

Men who stand before the demagogue and

Damn his treacherous flatteries without winking;

Tall men, sun crowned, who live above the fog

In public duty and in private thinking.

For while the rabble, with their thumb worm creeds,

Their large professions and their little deeds;

Mingle in selfish strife, lo, freedom weeps, 

Wrong rules the land and waiting justice sleeps. 

Blog 115: My Father Whom I Never Knew

By Vernon M. Herron

     The Biblical definition of marriage is a union between a male and a female. The traditional family consists of a father, a mother and offspring(s). I have written many times about my mother but today I write about my father, Samuel Joe Herron, Sr., who died at the age of Forty-seven and one year after my birth. Consequently, I never knew my father through a father-son relation, his character, nor his mental make-up. I did get a glimpse of him through family stories, an outstanding family griot (family historian), census records and a treasured picture which you now see.

     Through this blog, I will present my father whom I never knew, but like-wise, we will see and note genealogical techniques illustrated as a demonstration to show how we move from “the unknown to the known.”

     There are two ways to study family history. You may study in an ascent fashion or in a descent fashion. Family history starts with one-self and progresses upward to an ancestor. Genealogy is the study of the origin of family which descends from an ancestor.   

     In 1950, my father’s brother John Herron, a scholarly family griot (French- pronounced- gree-o), meticulously, methodically and orally gave this writer the outline of the Herron family in a descent fashion. It covered several generations. I will mention five of them.

     Here is a diagram of Uncle John’s revelation as recorded in my family history book.

     Here is how Uncle John’s revelation is recorded in my family history book.

 The Numbering System

     The backbone of genealogical information is its number system. There are three numbers which may be associated with an individual: the identification number, the generation number and the birth order number. Each individual discussed is assigned an individual Arabic number. Then, each head of family is given a generation number which appears in superscript following the first name. Finally, each child is listed under a head of household and is given a small Roman numeral indicating his or her birth order in that family.

     While I realize that many families may not be as fortunate as I in having an informed griot, there are the options of a City Directory and the census records. Try the census first, beginning with the last published year and work backward in ascent fashion.

     Now, let me tell you a bit more of what I learned about my father from the above mentioned sources. 

     First, he was the grandson of Richard and Minerva Herron who constituted the first known structured African American Herron family in the Piedmont of North Carolina in 1870.   

      Secondly, he was an entrepreneur, having at one time operated a café, a barber shop, and a pressing shop. Even though I found no will leaving capitol, he died leaving my mother with small children to rear alone. Father Samuel was active in the Friendship Missionary Baptist Church at the Brevard Street location, having served on the Usher Board. He is buried in the old Galilee Baptist Church’s cemetery on Nations Ford Road in Charlotte, NC.

     Family stories, a well organized family griot, census records and other memorabilia gave me a glimpse of my father whom I never knew,    but I am grateful for the glimpse I saw.

     

Blog 114: Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?

By Vernon M. Herron

Spirituals are symbolic yet they are firsthand historical documents which may reveal, motivate, inform or even challenge our theology. One Spiritual in particular, asks the question, were you there when they crucified my Lord? In parts, it goes like this:

            Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

            Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree (Cross)?

            Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb?

            Were you there when He rose up (arose) from the grave?

            Oh! Sometimes, it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.

            Were you there when – (It all happened?)

During the last few days, I asked this question to a few of my friends and received the following responses:

            “I was not there but I was remembered.”

            “Yes”

            “No, but there are situations when I feel like I know what it was like.”

            “No sir, I was not there.”

            “Well, they crucify Him yet today, so maybe I was there.”

When Jesus, the Christ, God’s only Son was whipped with many stripes and crucified on a Cross, He suffered and experienced a SUBSTITIUTIONARY DEATH i.e. death on our behalf for the sins of the world. VICARIOUSLY  we were all there, including the past, present and future.

The dictionary gives three distinct meanings of vicarious as a substitution.       
     .

1 Serving as a substitute for the benefit of another.

            2 Suffered by one person as a substitute for another.

            3 Experienced the sympathetic participation of another.

Vicariously, we were all there indeed, because He carried the sins of all mankind “with Him there.”

Read Isaiah 53 for a full view of the vicarious sacrifice of Christ. Let me quote selected verses from this chapter.

He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and

we esteemed Him not. Surely He hast borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and

            afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for

            our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with

His stripes we are healed…He was numbered with the transgressors and He bare the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

At times, Spirituals challenge our theology and our Biblical knowledge. Notice the Biblical reference for each question raised by the song:

            Were you there when they crucified my Lord?      John 19:18

            Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree (Cross)? John 20:25

            Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb?  Mark 6:29

Were you there when He rose up (arose) from the grave? Luke 16:3;Acts 10:41.

Oh yes, we were all there!! Let there be no question about it!!!

Spirituals have symbolic, hidden and implied meanings. Each is worthy of examination. Let us look at a few of them.

Wade in the Water

Wade in the water, wade in the water children,

wade in the water, God’s gonna trouble the water.

According to Queen Sound’s Black History, this song relates to both the Old and New Testaments: Exodus 14 and John 5:4, but we also know that Harriet Tubman

sang this spiritual as a warning to runaway slaves. To escaping slaves, the song told them to abandon the path and move to the water. By traveling along the water’s edge or across a body of water, the slaves would throw chasing dogs and their keepers off the scent.
     

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

Swing Low, sweet Chariot, coming for to carry me home.

Swing Low, sweet Chariot, coming for to carry me home.

I looked over Jordan and what did I see?

coming for to carry me home-

A band of angels coming after me!

coming for to carry me home.

Songs like “Swing Low” and “Steal Away” referred to the Underground Railroad, the resistance movement that helped slaves escape from the South to the North and Canada. Yet, still they expressed a desire for a return to the mother land of Africa.

The state of Virginia passed legislation forbidding a call for assembly “by beat of drum.” Thus, the slaves developed another secret code. It called for a secret meeting in the woods early in the a.m. Here is the song.

Let Us Break Bread Together

Let us break bread together on our knees,

Let us break bread together on our knees,

When I fall on my knees, with my face toward the rising sun,

O Lord! Have mercy on me.

When asked, were you there when they crucified my Lord? You can say “yes” with an understanding of Jesus, the Christ’s death which vicariously placed us there. When we hear other spirituals, let us think of the implied message.  

       

Blog 113: The Queen City Classic

By Vernon M. Herron

and other contributors

Joseph Burton, Vermelle D. Ely, Kathryn Frye, Jane Johnson, Gladys Massey, and Rufus Spears

     A classic is a traditional event, i.e. like football, setting a typical or perfect example. The Queen City Classic was the story of football games between Charlotte’s two Black high schools, Second Ward High School and West Charlotte High school during the years 1947-1969. Carver College, which was housed in the Second Ward High School’s building, also participated in the sponsorship of the classic. To understand the Queen City Classic is to understand the historical and the cultural perspectives of these two schools.

     Second Ward High School was the first high school built for Blacks in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina in 1923. By the end of 1966, it had an enrollment of over fifteen hundred students. Eighteen years into Second Ward’s existence, West Charlotte High School was born and erected. It was an outgrowth of Second Ward High School, which was demolished in 1969 by the Urban Renewal Program. West Charlotte High School was built in 1938. Its first principal, Clinton L. Blake, and many of its faculty members formerly taught at Second Ward High. Thus, West Charlotte High was a “child” of Second Ward High.

     Almost everybody attended Second Ward High, but there was an “over flow population.”  It included the bourgeois’ kids of Charlotte’s Black professional citizens, who lived west of Trade Street; these students attended West Charlotte High School. From the beginning, these two populations fostered an underlying rivalry spirit.   At first, football was the game between these two rivaling schools which was played at Harding High School’s practice field located on Irwin Ave. 

     The Queen City Classic was begun as a fund raising event and was held at the Charlotte Memorial Stadium. In addition to fund raising, a parade with floats and marching bands was scheduled but rain caused these activities to be cancelled. However, the football game proceeded and at half time, the planned pageantry was conducted. Vermelle Diamond was crowned the first queen of the Queen City Classic. She and her court received their designations according to funds raised.

   From Black America Series Charlotte, North Carolina, the following description is noted:

“At half time during the Queen City Classic football game, Miss Queen City Classic would be presented to the crowd. The 1948, queen Vermelle Diamond is surrounded by her attendants, Frank Jackson, Shirley Crane and Millie Ann Murphy. The gentlemen in the photo are officials from West Charlotte and Second Ward High Schools. One, Mr. Jackson is identified from Carver College, Fred Wiley, J. E. Grigsby and Kenneth H. Diamond, Sr. from Second Ward High and Clinton L. Blake from West Charlotte High School.”

     However, the cue for survival and personal safety depended upon which team was winning by the third quarter! It is reported that neighborhood outsiders, would start a fight of revenge at end time. Thus, by time the game was over, the stand and seat benches were empty. Because of continuous fighting, Charlotte Memorial Stadium cancelled the use of its facilities for the Second Ward High School and West Charlotte High School games. While Second Ward High was demolished by the Urban Renewal Program in 1969, West Charlotte High moved to a new building in 1954 and left its former home to Northwest Jr. High, now Northwest School of the Arts.   

     Even today, when the Queen City Classic comes to mind, “good sportsmanship” appears as a desired goal.
      

Blog 112: From Mopping to Nursing: Meet Jessie Maye Herron

By Vernon M. Herron

On Thursday 18 October 2012, the Winston Salem State University (WSSU) at Winston Salem, NC will conduct a Stroll Down Memory Lane Banquet in McNeil Hall, commemorating the 55th Anniversary of its first nursing class of 1957. The honorees include:

     Shirley Caldwell Blanton     Betty Brown Hines        Edna Taylor Williams

            Mary Scott Isom                   Bertha Mae Johnson     Constance C. Lipscomb

            Barbara Hope Austin           Bernice Donnell Davis   Ylene W. Veazie

            Jessie Maye Herron             Sadie Brown Webster   Jessie Little Campbell

Of the class population of twelve, four are deceased, seven are alive and one is unaccounted for. Yet, each will be honored with a brief biographical sketch of her life with a listing of five achievements since graduation 55 years ago.

The five achievements listed for Jessie include:
– She was the great granddaughter of Richard and Minerva Herron who constituted the first known structured African American Herron family in the Piedmont region of North Carolina in 1870.
– She pursued training in Nurse Education ten years after finishing high school.
– She was the Founder and President of the Nurses’ Guild of Charlotte’s Ebenezer Baptist Church.
– She was a member of the Senior Drummer and Percussion Ensemble of Charlotte’s Ebenezer Church.
– She was a philanthropist to students desirous of an education in nursing.

This saga began in the 40’s. After finishing high school in 1943, Jessie Maye worked in the Maintenance Department of the Charlotte Memorial Hospital as a maid mopping floors as one of her many duties. After this writer had finished college in 1951 and was employed in his first job, his sister Jessie declared to the family that she was tired of reporting to a job at 6 a.m. and mopping floors daily.

We all urged her to take training in some desired field which would lead to better working conditions and salary. This she did and away Jessie went to Winston- Salem State University, enrolling in the school’s first class for nurses. During the first year, Jessie suffered from loneliness and fatigue, crying and writing, “I want to come home, and I am lonely.” I volunteered to write the family response saying, “I give you no sympathy. Do you want to mop floors the rest of your life? Just stay there, tough it out and learn all you can for a Bachelor of Science degree. You won’t regret the hard study. It will pay dividends in days to come.”

Sister took my advice and graduated in the first class for nurses from WSSU with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing.  She was experienced in the field. She held positions in Washington, DC at George Washington Hospital and at Mercy Hospital in Charlotte, NC. She retired from Carolina Medical Center formerly known as (Charlotte Memorial Hospital) in Charlotte in 1988 after twenty-two years  n  of service as a trained nurse, where she once mopped floors.

Jessie conceived her profession as a ministry and recited the following prayer in her daily walk.

A Nurse’s Prayer

O My God, I am about to begin today’s work.

Teach me to receive the sick in Thy name.

Give to my effort, success, sweet Jesus,

For Thy glory and Thy holy name.

It is Thy work, without Thee, I cannot succeed.

Grant that the sick placed in my care,

may be abundantly blessed and not one of them

lost because of anything lacking in me.

Help thou me, to overcome every temporal weakness

and strengthen me for whatever may enable me to

bring the sunshine of joy to the lives that

are gathered around me day by day.

Make me beautiful within for the sake of the

sick ones and those lives which will

be influenced by them.  A-men

Herron Speaks blog is delighted to tell the Jessie Maye Herron story. Other family members who followed Jessie in nurse training at WSSU include two nieces, Clara Estell Hampton of the 1960 class and Betty Ann Davis of the 1961 class. Clara Estell Hampton married Jessie Herron’s nephew, William U. Harris also a graduate of WSSU’s class of 1958. Nurse Betty Davis is now a Mrs. Burney and is retired. Yet, another niece, Frenshetta Louise Herron followed Jessie in nurse training at another school, namely Lankenau Hospital School of Nursing of Philadelphia, PA. She finished with the class of 1992.

Other family members who have been mentioned in previous blogs include:

15-Nephew Dr. William Harris

65-Mama Mamie

66-Mama Mamie

76-Great grandparents

83-Aunt Leila

103-Niece Gaynelle

108-Mama Mamie
     

Blog 111: Time, Hope, Change, Forward, President Obama and Some Charlotte Black Lawyers

By Deborah A. Nance

Guest Writer- Attorney

(This article is dedicated to my late beloved mother,
Christine Long Nance)

Forward Moving of Time

     Since the beginning, time has been a silent recorder of history. An irreversible forward mover, time has recorded every hope, change and event, known and unknown to humanity. 

     In early September 2012, time is expected to move forward and record what some Americans have hoped for, but what was inconceivable to many less than a decade ago, given this nation’s history of racial civil rights divisions. The historic setting is the Southeast, more specifically Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.   

     The historic event is the nomination of an African American for a second term as President of the United States of America by a major national political party.  The history-makers are a black lawyer named Barack Hussein Obama, II and the Democratic Party.   

     Ironically over 150 years ago, time recorded the nation’s other major party, the Republican Party, the supporter of the abolition of African American slavery, as the historic racial change-maker.  

Passing and Denial of Political Access

     No publicly known female has ever been nominated for President by a major political party. American females did not gain the right to vote throughout the United States, until 1920 when the 19^th constitutional amendment was enacted.   
     Americans possessing a drop of African blood were deemed to be colored, Negroes, blacks or African Americans by this nation’s laws or social conventions.  For many years, given this country’s racial history, it would have been political suicide for any Presidential contender to publicly confirm a trace of African ancestry.

     According to rumors, males possessing a genetic make-up of African and non-African blood secured the White House seat before President Obama.  The rumors are probably true given this country’s history of the races’ co-mingling in spite of past anti-race mixing laws and social taboos.  Of the number, President Obama is the first who has publicly admitted his African ancestry. If others served, then they passed as “whites”.

     For most of this nation’s history, prior to the late 1900s, very few persons known to be black managed to secure local, state or federal political offices. This was true whether blacks were categorized as slaves, free blacks or Jim Crow blacks.  The only exception to this occurred during the Reconstruction Era, which followed this nation’s Civil War.

     The enslavement of blacks was one of the issues that divided the nation and caused the southern slave state to secede from the United States. The Confederate  Army defended the southern slave states.  The Union Army defended the nation and defeated the Confederate Army.  As a result, the northern states and southern states were reunited.  Another lawyer who became President, Republican Abraham Lincoln, occupied the White House seat during the Civil War.  President Obama is an admirer of Lincoln.

Changing of the Racial Climate

     During the Jim Crow Era, extreme racial segregationist laws and practices were renewed against African Americans in the South.  As a result, most of the political, social, economical and educational opportunities gained by blacks during the Reconstruction Era were virtually eliminated. 

     While winning the White House seat and other elected offices appear to be a hoped-for but impossible dream for blacks, a change in this nation’s racial, political, economical, educational and social structure did come.  The change came slowly and gradually despite past laws, social customs, murders, job losses, home-bombings, police dogs, fire hoses, literacy tests, grandfather clauses, poll taxes, lynch mobs and white supremacists.  And through it all, time continued to move forward to record the change and all of the events which led up to the change.

     Obama came to Charlotte to campaign during his first bid for President. At that time his campaign slogan was “hope and change”.  Now it is “forward”. 

     Time recorded that visit and time has recorded the arrival of other black lawyers to Charlotte too.  Unlike President Obama, some black lawyers have come to Charlotte to practice law.  Some have played a role, along with non-lawyers, in the long struggle for racial civil rights in the United States. Victories in the struggle for civil rights for blacks have resulted in civil rights gains for all Americans, including women and other minority racial groups.

Black Lawyers

     Some black lawyers who started law practices in Charlotte before 1960 include John Sinclair Leary, Sr., John Thomas Sanders, Jesse Simpson Bowser, Leon Peter Harris, Ruffin Paige Boulding, Thomas Henry Wyche, Robert Davis Glass, Charles Vincent Bell and Walter Brewer Nivens.  

     President Obama had not been born when they opened their local law offices.  By the time Obama received his law degree in 1991, only Glass, Wyche and Bell were still alive.

     All nine practiced law during the Jim Crow Era and some lived to see the end of the Jim Crow Era.  Many paved the way via litigation and other lawful means to secure the elections or appointments of blacks to local, state and national political offices and/or to abolish Jim Crow laws and customs. 
     Although all hoped for a political, educational, economical and social climate which was just and equitable to Americans regardless of their racial ancestries, none lived to witness the nomination of the first openly black male for the Presidency of the United States by a major political party.   However, time, that irreversible forward mover and silent recorder of history, witnessed it all.